SECTION TWO - THE GENERAL WORLD PICTURE - Part 1

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SECTION TWO

THE GENERAL WORLD PICTURE

THE CAUSES OF THE WORLD DIFFICULTY

September 1938

In giving these Instructions I am anxious for you clearly to comprehend the end I have in view. Sincere students and disciples must hold ever before them the idea of Service; in connection with our present theme this is political service—along the line of world planning and world government. This teaching will carry to the general public some idea of the trend of human destiny where nations and larger groups are concerned, and should give a conviction of hierarchical potency and a sense of illumination. It will, however, do this far more easily if the ideas I attempt to convey are backed by the understanding thought, and the intelligent mental cooperation of a group of people who have pondered deeply on the theme.

What is our theme? A study and an analysis, from the esoteric angle, of the social organisation of humanity. I seek to have you grasp some of the universal implications which the signs of the times portray and not be entirely engrossed with the immediate situation or dilemma; too close a perception and too near a point of view does not tend to true understanding. It fails, for one thing, to indicate the particular place in the general world picture which the immediate happenings outline.

It is a platitude and a truism to state that humanity is today passing through a crisis of immense proportions. The causes of this crisis must be sought in many factors. They lie in the past; in the growth, through evolution, of certain [70] basic tendencies in man; in past mistakes, present opportunities, and the powerful activity of the Hierarchy of Love. The future is of great promise, provided man can learn the lessons of the present which have been closely presented to him; he must accept them and understand clearly the nature of his problem and of the crisis with its many ramifications and various implications.

The seething turmoil in which the masses of the people are now living and the emergence of one or two key people in every nation have a close relationship. These key people make their voices heard and evoke attention; their ideas are followed, rightly or wrongly, with attention, appreciation or distrust. The slow and careful formation of the New Group of World Servers is indicative of the crisis. They are overseeing or ushering in the New Age, and are present at the birthpangs of the new civilisation, and the coming into manifestation of a new race, a new culture and a new world outlook. The work is necessarily slow and those of you who are immersed in the problems and the pains, find it hard to view the future with assurance or to interpret the present with clarity.

I have listed some of the reasons for the present world unrest in another book (Education in the New Age, pp. 116-125) reminding you that some of the causes lie in so remote a past that history knows nothing of them. You would find it useful to re-read those few pages at this point, for in them I sought to give some insight into the essential situation which confronts mankind due to certain evolutionary developments:

1. The point reached by humanity itself

2. The emergence of the new racial type

3. The ending of the Piscean Age

4. The coming in of the Aquarian Age.

We barely touched upon the fourth point and I am not enlarging at length upon it here either, fascinating as speculation might be, because I am anxious to have its major characteristics—those of unity and synthesis—stand [71] out with clarity in your minds. It gives the clue to all that is happening today in the world of politics and international governments, and accounts for the trend toward synthesis, amalgamation and affiliation.

The remaining four causes which we will consider later might be enumerated as follows:

5. The time of the end. The judgment of people. This period of judgment is a group interlude to the full emergence of the New Age influences.

6. The levelling of all classes and distinctions so that the spiritual values may appear and the spiritual Hierarchy manifest on earth.

7. The fact of the Approach of the Hierarchy towards external contact with humanity. I would suggest that you read my earlier writings on the Great Approaches. [iv]*

8. The power and significance, politically considered, of the Great Invocation.

THE HIDDEN SOURCE OF THE OUTER TURMOIL

January 1939

Another angle from which the world situation can be viewed with profit is to look for the hidden source of the outer turmoil. This is seldom what men think it is, for the source lies in the realm of energies and forces. As I explained elsewhere (The Destiny of the Nations, pages 3-47), there are three great streams of energy working powerfully in the world at this time and two others are also struggling for expression, making the five that—together—will determine the trend of world affairs. To repeat briefly:

1. The first and the most powerful force is that pouring into the world from Shamballa, the planetary centre where the Will of God is known. Only twice in our planetary [72] history has this Shamballa energy made its presence felt directly: the first time, when the great human crisis occurred at the individualisation of man in ancient Lemuria; the second time, in Atlantean days in the great struggle between the Lords of Light and the Lords of Material Form, also called the Dark Forces. Today, this force streams out from the Holy Centre; it embodies the Will aspect of the present world crisis and its two subsidiary effects or qualities are:

a. The destruction of that which is undesirable and hindering in the present world forms (in government, religion and society).

b. The synthesising force which binds together that which has hitherto been separated.

The Shamballa force is so new and so unrecognised that it is hard for humanity to know it for what it is—the demonstration of the beneficent Will of God in new and potent livingness.

2. The second major force which is potently making itself felt today is that of the spiritual Hierarchy, the planetary centre where the Love of God holds sway, as it swings into one of its major cyclic approaches to the earth. The problem before the Hierarchy at this time is so to direct and control all five of the powerful energies that the Divine Plan can materialise, and the close of this century see the Purpose of God for humanity assuming right direction and proportion.

3. Humanity itself is the third major planetary centre through which one of the three divine aspects, Intelligence, is expressing itself, producing its world effects.

These three centres are closely interrelated and must be thought of as expressions of divine livingness, as embodying three stages in the unfoldment of God's Plan, and as constituting the three major centres—Head, Heart, Throat—in the body of the One in Whom we live and move and [73] have our being. Students can relate these three centres to the three solar systems, referred to in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. In the first solar system, the centre which is Humanity was prepared and the principle of intelligence came into manifestation. In the second solar system, the Hierarchy of Love made its appearance and must come into full manifestation, thereby enabling the love of God to be seen. In the next solar system, the centre which we today call Shamballa, will manifest the Will aspect of Deity intelligently through love. It is interesting to note that it is only through human beings, that these three centres ever come into true functioning activity; and likewise that the three major ideologies (the totalitarian, the democratic, the communistic) may be the response—distorted and yet responsive—to the forces playing from the two higher centres on to the human. This we discussed earlier (The Destiny of the Nations, page 22).

Those of you who are seeking to serve humanity and to join in the Hierarchical effort to bring healing to a world in pain, must learn to penetrate behind appearances, behind the methods and schemes, the results and effects on the physical plane and endeavour to contact the forces of Shamballa or of the Hierarchy, plus the human need which has produced these modes of expression and thus see them for what they are—not worn out systems and childish efforts at improvement but embryonic plans whereby, eventually, may come release and the culture and civilisation of the New Age. If you are seeking to bring illumination into the dark places of the earth (which means into the minds of men), then you must yourselves see clearly and relate the abstract and the concrete in such a manner that, in your own lives, a working idealism may be seen; only so can a working idealism of a national, racial and human nature also be seen. The head as well as the heart must be used, and this many earnest people are apt to forget. Can you possibly work at high tension in this endeavour—a tension produced by the interrelation of the head and the heart, working out creatively through the [74]throat centre, esoterically understood? In this last sentence I have expressed for disciples the nature of the effort they need to make.

It is in the recognition of what is happening to mankind as a whole and behind the scenes, that the thinkers of the world and the New Group of World Servers can best serve; it is the unfoldment of the human consciousness in response to the presented conditions in any country or countries that is of moment; the "human state of mind" is just beginning to focus itself on the things that matter and to express itself in a living fashion. The thinkers and servers must learn to concentrate upon the awakening consciousness and not upon the superficial movements. This awakening goes on apace and, my brothers, satisfactorily. The form or forms may suffer but the intrinsic awareness of man is becoming, during this century, expressively divine.

The two other forces which tend to increase the already prevalent tension in the world are:

4. The forces of materialism, streaming out into the three worlds from the so-called "Dark Forces" or Black Lodge, and from those groups of lives and workers which are the antithesis of the Great White Lodge.

5. The force emanating from that section of humanity which is found in every part of the world and which we call the Jewish people. What I say here has no specific reference to any individual; I am considering the world problem, centering around the Jews as a whole.

These two forces greatly complicate the problem by which humanity and the Hierarchy are faced, but it should be remembered that they also produce that balancing which is ever needed for the production of right conditions.

There is little that I can tell you about the Dark Forces. They are not the problems of humanity but that of the Hierarchy. The task of these Forces is the preservation of the form life and the working out of methods and aims which are inherent in the processes of manifestation. The Black Lodge, so-called, is occupied with the form aspect of [75] manifestation; the White Lodge, with the consciousness aspect. It might, therefore, be stated that:

1. Shamballa is occupied with the life aspect in its graded impulses.

2. The Hierarchy is occupied with the consciousness aspect in its graded series of expansions.

3. The Black Lodge is occupied with the matter aspect in its multiplicity of forms.

Again, light may come to you, if you relate this triple statement to the three solar systems and to the three aspects of divinity. Evil or wrong, therefore, exists only when the emphasis is retained in the wrong aspect from the point of view of the unfoldment attained or when that which has been used and developed to the necessary point, holds the life or consciousness too long. Hence, my brothers, the beneficent nature of death.

The Forces of Darkness are powerful energies, working to preserve that which is ancient and material; hence they are pre-eminently the forces of crystallisation, of form preservation, of the attractiveness of matter, and of the lure of that which is existent in the form life of the three worlds. They consequently block deliberately the inflow of that which is new and life-giving; they work to prevent the understanding of that which is of the New Age; they endeavour to preserve that which is familiar and old, to counteract the effects of the oncoming culture and civilisation, to bring blindness to the peoples and to feed steadily the existing fires of hate, of separateness, of criticism and of cruelty. These forces, as far as the intelligent peoples of the world are concerned, work insidiously and cloak their effort in fair words, leading even disciples to express hatred of persons and ideologies, fostering the hidden seeds of hatred found in many human beings. They fan to fury the fear and hate of the world in an effort to preserve that which is old and make the unknown appear undesirable, and they hold back the forces of evolution and of progress for their own ends. These [76] ends are as inscrutable to you as are the plans of the Ruler of Shamballa.

These are forces which it is well for you to recognise as existing, but there is little that you, as individuals or as groups, can do about them beyond seeing to it that there is nothing in you which could make you—unimportant as you are—a focal point for their efforts or an agent for the distribution of their peculiar type of energy—the energy of focussed and directed hate, of separation, of fear and pride. With them we who are connected directly with the Hierarchy have to deal, but you can aid more than you know through the regulation of thoughts and ideas, through the cultivation of a loving spirit and through the general use of the Great Invocation.

We come now, for a brief moment, to a consideration of the Jewish question. Remember that it is an interesting fact that the Jews are found in every land without exception, that their influence is potent and widespread (far more so than they themselves are willing to recognise), and that they wield most potently that peculiar concretisation of energy which we call money. They constitute, in a strange manner, a unique and distinctly separated world centre of energy. The reason for this is that they represent the energy and the life of the previous solar system. You have often been told how, at the close of this solar system, a certain percentage of the human family will fail to make the grade and will then be held in pralaya, or in solution, until the time for the manifestation of the next and third solar system comes around. Then they will constitute the advanced guard and the symbol of the coming humanity of that system. The same thing occurred in the system before this one and those whom we now call the Jews (a purely modern name and distinction, as I tried to show in the last few pages of A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. I, Esoteric Psychology), are the descendants of that earlier group which was held in pralaya between the first and second solar systems. If you will remember that the third ray governed that system and also governs the Jewish race, if you bear in mind that that system was occupied with [77] the divine aspects of matter only and with external conditions, and that the Jews were the highest product of that system you can come to an understanding of the Jew, his separateness, his desire for racial purity and his interest in that which is commercial and tangible. The Jew, down the ages, has insisted upon being separated from all other races but he brought over from the previous system the knowledge (necessary then but obsolete now) that his race was the "chosen people." The "Wandering Jew" has wandered from System One to this where he must learn the lesson of absorption and cease his wandering. He has insisted upon racial purity, for that was his major problem in early Lemurian times when the race came into a world that had in it no human beings, for it was before the coming of the Lords of Flame; this insistence has been carried down the ages and has governed the rules of marriage and the preparation of food instead of being dropped (as it should have been) thousands of years ago. It is these facts (unknown to the modern Jew) which has militated against him down the years and made it possible for the forces of separativeness and of hate, to use the Jewish race to stir up world difficulty, and thus bring to a crisis the basic human problem of separation. When humanity has solved the Jewish problem (with the understanding cooperation of the Jew) and overcome ancient antipathies and hatreds, it will do so by fusing the problem in one vast humanitarian situation. When that happens, the problem will be rapidly solved and one of the major difficulties will disappear off the face of the earth. Racial fusion will then be possible. Our earth humanity and the group of human beings who are far more ancient in their origin than we are, will form one humanity and then there will be peace on earth.

Why our planet and this solar system should have been constituted the nursery for the seeds of separativeness and why this remnant of humanity, far more advanced than ours, should have been destined to work out its future on our earth, is hid in the knowledge of the Lord of Shamballa, and is unattainable knowledge for you and, indeed, for many [78] in the Hierarchy. It is simply a fact to be accepted by you. The solution will come, as I said, when the races regard the Jewish problem as a humanitarian problem but also when the Jew does his share of understanding, love and right action. This he does not yet do, speaking racially. He must let go of his own separative tendencies and of his deep sense of persecution. He will do this latter with great facility, when he grasps, as a race, the significance and inevitability of the Law of Karma, and from a close study of the Old Testament and of the acts and deeds there claimed by him as his racial acts and deeds (conquest, terrorism and cruelty), realises that the law is working out and incidentally releasing him for a greater future. There must, at the same time, be a realisation by the Jew and Gentile of equal responsibility and equal liability for the present world difficulty.

The two forces to which I have been referring must, therefore, be taken into account by all disciples as they seek to serve in this critical cycle; these two forces must also be taken into your calculations as you start this new group work or your wrong idealisms and thoughts may hinder the group work. You must recognise theoretically the five forces (three major and two minor) which meet and clash in the human family at this time. It has been necessary for me to bring these facts to your attention. If disciples are to do group work together on mental levels, they must clear their minds of prejudice, hatreds and any tendency to superiority and criticism. You cannot work, as a group, if these ideas and thoughts are present, and I am preparing now to teach you some of the first stages of group work and usefulness. It would not have been necessary for me to deal with these world problems if you had been immune from emotional reactions to them, but very few of you have your minds clear from prejudice and free from hatred. Those few make the work possible and it is also possible for the rest of you to detach your minds from undue influence and wrong ideas.

I ask you, in this work, to concentrate upon the Shamballa and the Hierarchical forces. I ask you to regard yourselves [79] as pure and unclogged channels and to seek only to be linked with the soul of each and all, whose nature is pure love, realised synthesis and divine potency.

It is essential, however, in spite of the work to which I have called these groups and which—as you know—is intended to lay the basis for the work of the esoteric schools of the future, that the members of all the groups realise that exoteric group work must also be undertaken. Too many in these groups are satisfied with the significance of their own group work and permit it to usurp the place of objective service.

If it is so hard, my brothers, to arouse aspirants, such as yourselves, to urgent service and a full sense of responsibility; if men and women with all the information that you possess cannot be aroused to sacrificing effort, you can gain some idea of the magnitude of the task with which the Hierarchy is confronted at this time. You can realise, perhaps, the sense almost of frustration which could sweep over me (if I were limited by any time concept) when, for instance, those to whom I look for cooperation, are preoccupied with their own affairs, have no sense of immediacy and prefer to concentrate upon their own development, their own families, their own problems, rather than achieve the larger world view which would lead to full cooperation. The averting of a world debacle is the aim of our effort and towards this aim I have asked your help.

THE SPIRITUAL TREND OF HUMAN DESTINY

Wesak, May 1939

In this hour of crisis, anxiety and suspense, it has seemed that there are certain things which you would do well to remember, and certain things which you should endeavour to do.

The first thing, therefore, of which I would like to remind you is that The Hierarchy stands. Behind all that is going on today, the same group of spiritual Forces and the [80] same Elder Brothers and Masters are to be found as heretofore, guiding humanity along the path of life and bringing us safely and satisfactorily to our present point of development. The Buddha, Whose festival we are celebrating, and the Christ, Who expresses to us the unchanging love of God, are still with us, and the Hierarchy stands as a bulwark of strength between us and possible disaster; this centre of spiritual life is "like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land".

The second thing I would have you all remember is that mankind has marched steadily forward from a state of blind ignorance and unawareness to one of an intelligent preoccupation with life and a growing sense of responsibility. This sense of responsibility, which is awakening in all of you, is—on its present large scale—relatively new and is one of the factors definitely increasing the distress and pain you are all feeling. You ask yourselves, where, as a race, have we failed and what can we do to rectify our mistakes? In spite of everything, however, men have gone from stage to stage of intelligent and spiritual unfoldment and no matter what the outer happenings have been or may be, the race has made real progress. There has been no turning back, and there will be none. Mankind has weathered many storms and survived many difficulties; men have emerged from periods of crisis better and stronger, purified "so as by fire" and definitely nearer the goal.

I would remind you also of the integrity and solidarity of the human family. We are one people—one in our relationships, and capacities and desires, our origin and our goal. It is this essential and recognisable integrity which is emerging at this time powerfully in the human consciousness. You are apt to think that this may not be so, that your position in believing this is somewhat unique and that you stand somewhat alone. But this is your error and is not true to the facts of the case. In every land and among widely differing peoples, the same desire exists for understanding, for the establishing of right and peaceful relations, and for the [81] expression of that basic goodwill which is one of the deepest human characteristics and our divine inheritance.

These are the things which, it seems to me, are important at this time, and which all of us would do well to remember. Will you try to do so? No matter what may take place in the world—whether war or peace, strife and aggression or understanding conciliation and conference—we face a difficult period of adjustment, and for this we must be prepared. The next three years are critical, and this we have often been told.

Much will depend upon what you and all men of goodwill and disciples think and what they do. I would like to remind you of another most encouraging thing, and that is that the power wielded by those who are seeking to live as souls and in touch with the soul and the world of spiritual realities is out of all proportion to their registered sense of power and usefulness. You are, as you endeavour to wield spiritual force constructively and selflessly, far more potent than you realise. If you add to this realisation the recognition that you are not alone in this, but that people with a vision similar to yours and with the same ideals and spiritual aspiration are to be found in every country without exception of any kind, in every religion, group and organisation, then indeed you can go forward with courage and with hopeful faith. If this is a statement of fact (and I believe it to be so) then let us go forward in unison with our brothers everywhere, conscious of opportunity, of strength, of responsibility and of the joy of service.

As regards some of the things which you can do, I would suggest the following. Refuse to allow yourselves to be swept by any fear psychosis or to be stampeded into any attitude through which the anxiety and unrest and distress in the world can overwhelm you. Strive to stand in spiritual being. Each morning, in your meditation, seek to take that attitude with a new and fresh definiteness and to hold it during the hours of service which lie ahead each day. This will not be an easy thing to do, but it can be done if you can get quiet enough for five minutes each morning—completely [82] and interiorly quiet—and if you fill your days with vital occupation and true service, guarding with care all thought and speech.

Between now and the Wesak Festival in 1940 let each of you gain that control of speech which has often been your goal but seldom your achievement, and remember that the most powerful factor in the control of speech is a loving heart. Wild and fearful talk, hateful gossip, cruel innuendo, suspicion, the ascribing of wrong and wicked motives to persons and peoples, and the divergences of attitude which have separated the many different nations in the world are rampant today and have brought the world to its present distressing situation. It is so easy to drift into the same habits of speech and thought which we find around us and to discover ourselves participating in attack and the spirit of hate. Guard yourselves strenuously against this and say nothing which could inflame hate and suspicion in connection with any race, any person, any group or any leaders of groups and nations. You will have to guard yourselves with care, so that even in defense of that which you may personally or nationally approve you do not find yourselves full of hate and breaking the law of love—the only law which can truly save the world. Perhaps the key to your success along this line will be the silence of a loving heart.

It will be good also to cultivate the joy that brings strength. This is not the time for gloom, despair or depression. If you give way to these, you become negative and destructive focal points in your environment. If you truly believe that the spiritual life is fundamental in the world today, if you do believe that divinity guides the world, if you truly grasp the fact that all men are your brothers and that we are all the children of the One Father, and if you are convinced that the heart of humanity is sound—are these not adequately potent ideas to hold us joyously steady in the midst of a changing world?

Will you, therefore, carry with you the following ideas?

First, that the Hierarchy of spiritual Forces stands in spiritual Being.

[83] Second, that we too can stand steady in spiritual Being.

Third, that the silence of a loving heart should be our keynote for the coming year.

Fourth, that strength to stand is the result of a joyous attitude and a true orientation to the soul.

CONFLICT BETWEEN FORCES OF ANCIENT ORIGIN

August 1939

I have already written anent the fivefold stream of energy which is today in conflict with world forces or with the forces of light or darkness, so called. (I would remind you that there would be no darkness without the light and no light without the dark. Ponder on this.) I would ask you to realise that the organised efforts of the Great White Lodge are directed toward lifting the organised forces of materialism to a higher and spiritual plane. Today, gold and separativeness, materialism and selfishness are in conflict with spiritual energy and with the spirit of cooperation or understanding fusion. The law which will determine the results can be expressed in the words that have been often used: by holding, man loses; by relinquishing, he gains; by seeking to grasp that which he has, it must and will inevitably disappear. Reflect upon this law.

The method whereby the forces of separation and of selfishness work are by competitive cooperation. Throughout the world, groups are already formed (or are in process of forming) to bring about the attainment of various materialistic goals, the achievement of personal or national ambitions, and the imposition of intellectual plans and concepts (the so-called ideologies) upon the mass of the people. Parties, organisations, groups, societies, associations and alliances exist for the furtherance of political and sociological aims and to carry forward the projects of many peoples and the many and differing points of view, plus the many attitudes toward life and its arrangement and re-arrangement. I am not here dealing with the churches, the [84] great religions or the religious organisations. I am concerned with the determining factors which are today conditioning the material life of the planet. Speaking broadly, these forces and groups are occupied with material values and mental ideas. They are not principally occupied with the more subtle values, though these are incidentally present. The emphasis is upon the economic situation; upon the possession of land or cultural predispositions and tendencies and with the relations between people and nations; these latter are based fundamentally, as you know, on that which is tangible and objective, guarded, defended or gained and procured by definitely tangible means which are in themselves separative and divided. This statement, I think, the people of every nation would regard as true. The basic underlying methods employed are those of organisational arrangement (large, as in nations, or smaller, as in the groups within the nations), propaganda, the imposition of favoured ideas through the use of the spoken and written word in every country, group loyalty, group adherence to the leader, and group methods. Success depends upon the gained group cohesion, the group willingness to sacrifice, plus loyalty and allegiance to some directing personality.

Behind these many groups stand the forces of ancient origin which are pledged either to the material or the spiritual values. Because many ages have gone by in the building up of the material values, to the development of the personality consciousness, and to the achievement of a tangible and objective civilisation, the forces of materialism are apparently far stronger and more potent than the forces of the spirit or of the intangible worlds. Up to the present this has not been wrong, though it has been accompanied by much that has been undesirable and which has led to a one-sided evolution. But the time has now come for the shift of the human consciousness into the world of true and spiritual understanding and of the intangible and more desirable standards of living.

Pouring through the chaos of offensive and defensive groups and through the many warring organisations (political [85] for the most part, or religious), and affecting both the reactionary bodies and those who stand for the new ideals and the coming civilisation and culture, are the five streams above mentioned—streams of energy.

At this point I would remind you that the effect of the impact of energy is dependent upon the nature of the vehicle of response. According to his equipment and the nature of his bodies, so will man react to the inflowing energies. This is a fundamental statement. It is a law and should be most carefully considered. The effects of a Master or initiate upon men are widely different, because each man brings to the impact of His vibration a type of physical body, an astral or emotional nature, and a mind which are in each case different from all the others. The use each makes of the stimulating energy will be different; the focus of his consciousness is very different; his type of mind is quite different; his centres, their activity and their internal organisation are different. And it is the same for groups, organisations and nations.

Nations, for instance, have seven centres, as have all forms of existence from the human and animal upwards, and it is an interesting study to discover these centres and note the type of energy which flows through them. In connection with the United States of America, Chicago is the solar plexus centre, whilst New York is the throat centre and Washington the head centre. The heart centre is Los Angeles. The heart centre of Germany is Munich, and its head centre is Nuremberg, whilst Berlin is the throat centre. London is, of course, the heart centre for Great Britain (and temporarily it is also the head centre, though this will not always be the case), whilst Ottawa is the throat centre and Sydney is the solar plexus centre of the British Empire. Some day I may indicate to you the centres through which the forces of manifestation have to work for the various nations. This information constitutes one of the major hierarchical sciences and indicates to us who know it the possibilities latent in any nation, the point of attainment and the opportunities for work and advancement, or the obstacles [86] to progress; this is gauged by the light in the centres and the heightening and the obscuration of their vibration. It is this that makes possible or hinders the growth of what is called spirituality in individuals and in nations, and this science will later be recognised. It is by means of this science that the Hierarchy can form its larger plans and know in what manner individual nations will react to stimulation and to progress of the desired kind. This is the modern form of the ancient Atlantean laya-yoga, or the yoga of the centres.

According, therefore, to the condition of the sensitive bodies of the planet, of nations and of individuals, so will be their reaction to the five kinds of inflowing forces. The Shamballa force, for instance, in making its impact upon first ray types, and upon the other ray types on that line of major energy—the third, fifth and seventh ray types—evokes widely differing results than when it makes an impact upon the second ray line of energy; the results of the impact of Shamballa energy upon the first ray individuals and nations can be potent in the extreme. This impact, being relatively a new one to humanity, evokes in the world today all the political and organisational changes which are so prevalent and so disturbing. There is little that humanity can do about this except endeavour to balance this first ray display of energy with second ray or hierarchical force. This latter energy—working through the world religions and the men and women who respond to the love influence—can change methods (though not the purpose or the direction) by pouring in the love force.

Again, that force which we regard as emanating from the strictly human centre, the third ray type of energy, is of the third or creative order; and in these three energies you have, in reality, the expression of the three major centres of the planetary Logos. The first or will energy is, as you know, focussed in Sanat Kumara, the Ancient of Days (as He is called in the Christian Bible), the Lord of Shamballa, Who is the embodiment of the Personality of the planetary Logos. The love force is focussed through the two great spiritual Lords of the Hierarchy, the Buddha and the [87] Christ, Who are both embodiments of the heart centre of the planetary Logos, for the Buddha represents the twelve-petalled lotus in the head, of which the Christ represents the counterpart, the twelve-petalled lotus of the heart centre. This is a fact seldom grasped or even mentioned. The petals of the throat centre are represented at this time by certain of the leading world rulers, whose activity is responsible for the rapid creation of the new world with its rapidly altering civilisations and culture. These thoughts will provide much that you would do well to consider.

The fourth type of force, which is responsible for the state of world affairs at this time, is that of the Jews; they, as a whole, constitute the solar plexus of the planetary Logos; their problem is being used today to focus, qualify and condition the world feeling-nature and the emotional reactions of the sensitive nature of humanity and of the planetary Logos. Forget not that the Personality of our planetary Logos is not yet perfect, hence the fact that His body of manifestation, the planet, is not reckoned as being one of the sacred planets. Through the Jewish people throughout the world, feeling—sympathetic or antagonistic, expressive of love or conditioned by hate—is being gathered to a focus in the planetary solar plexus centre, preparatory to a great and permanent change. It is for this reason that I have said to some of my pupils that when humanity will have solved correctly the Jewish problem, and when it has been resolved in a humanitarian and sound manner, then the energy of the planetary solar plexus centre will have been raised to the heart and a great transmutation will have taken place.

The Dark or Materialistic Forces correspond in their entirety to the energies of the sacral centre of the planet, dealing with the generation of forms, and their work is to keep the direction of planetary interest upon the form side of divine expression. They are concerned with the life of matter itself, with its magical usage, and with that which is regarded as dark because, for humanity at its present stage of development, that divine aspect should have lost its major [88] hold and should lie behind "in the darkness of that which has been outgrown and which has no further hold upon the son of God". You therefore have the following tabulation expressing what I have sought above to make clear to you.

I would point out here that the fourth energy, focussed in the Jewish problem, is definitely producing cleavage as a part of the divine plan. The Jews are instruments in the working out of the Plan for the production of certain syntheses and to bring humanity to certain realisations and decisions. A close study of this tabulation will bring you much of knowledge. However, it only expresses the present situation in this interim period between the old Piscean age which is passing and the new Aquarian age which is coming in. It depicts this present world cycle. The emphasis of the rays changes in connection with the last two types of energy expressions quite constantly, because they are symbolic (in this day and age) of the personality nature in its physical and emotional forms.

I wonder whether you can grasp the implications of this paragraph. When the mind aspect (the third aspect of the personality) is more fully developed, then the focus of the effort of the Dark Forces will change and the problem of the Jews will disappear. Mankind is not yet handling its problems intelligently. Thus the forces and energies of the creative process are exceedingly active at this time in preparing what I might call the "material of the world" and the substance of all the four kingdoms in nature for the coming changes. As the ploughman turns the soil of his field and harrows it, and so brings that which is underneath to eventual fruition, so a similar process is taking place in the world today, and all is preparatory for the sowing and its resultant effects. These effects will constitute the new Aquarian culture and civilisation. In this process the Hierarchy is taking a definite and influential part and is working more uniquely and specifically than ever before in the history of the world, under instruction and vital aid from Shamballa.

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I.

The Shamballa energy

The divine purpose.

Planetary head centre

Conditioning the life of nations.

First Ray

Determining.

THE PLAN.

Will

Expression:

Sanat Kumara.

Politics. Esotericism.

New.

Destroys.

II.

Hierarchical energy

Divine love-wisdom.

Planetary heart centre

Conditioning the soul.

Second Ray

Inspiring.

Love-Wisdom

Expressions:

Buddha and Christ.

Religious. Spiritual.

Permanent.

Builds.

III.

Humanity's energy

Divine intelligence.

Planetary throat centre

Conditioning the mind.

Third Ray

Creative.

Intellect

Expression:

Many people today.

Educational.

IV.

The Jewish force

Temporary

Producing separation.

Planetary solar plexus

Conditioning world emotion

Sensitivity.

Seventh Ray aspect

of Third Ray.

Magic

Money

V.

The materialistic forces

The Matter aspect.

Planetary sacral centre

Conditioning substance. Generation.

Fifth Ray aspect of First Ray.

Mind

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Seed groups are in process of being "esoterically anchored" in the field of the world, having in them those who can respond to the subtler forces and who can—through the strength of their clear thought at this stage of the proceedings—produce those conditions (within the present existing world trends and world groups) which will enable the new sciences, the new approaches to divinity, the new education, and the new modes of handling the economic situation and the political problems, to precipitate and further the growth of the Kingdom of God in such a manner that this fifth kingdom in nature may be a tangible, factual and objective occurrence upon the Earth.

In the founding of the fourth kingdom in nature, the human kingdom, the process is spoken of in the ancient books and archives in the library of the Hierarchy in the following terms which are (some of them) paraphrased and expanded in The Secret Doctrine:

"Seven men appeared, the prisoners of the Prajapatis and the prisoners also of the earthly Barhishads... Seven men of seven colours... Seven men, each on his own lot and related to the eighth. They spoke and knew each other. They saw and they desired that which then appeared. They sensed the first, the second and the third. They were themselves the fourth, but of the fifth they had as yet no knowledge for they were prisoners of the world and the fifth could not appear. The fires which were forty-nine in number proceeded then to do their work, and the prison bars grew firm as steel... But time persisted and the seven—each on his own lot—began to grow too large for the confining bars."

This parable will be apparent to esotericists. The clue to what I have to say comes later in the same ancient writing, and here I will roughly paraphrase or freely translate it for you.

"The seven—each on his own lot—acquired knowledge. The knowledge was the same, but the soil within [91] the lots differed. Nevertheless, the goal of reaching towards the heavens was the same as in the second (a reference to the vegetable kingdom and its symbolically skyward aspiration)... No further do they reach. Upon the lot of each, nine points of light appear, reflected in the heavens; they brought to seeding point that human seed which has within it that which is not of man. The light produced the germination and thus the new and better forms of life. And yet the form remains and yet its quality is changed. (I can find no better word than `quality' wherewith to translate the ancient symbol). Some things are lost and disappear and rightly so. Some newer modes of life and what life builds appear, and thus the fifth is seen on earth like to the second and nurtured by the fourth. Within it are the one, the two, the three and then the fifth. And thus the glory of the One is seen."

One meaning is obvious if you study with care the implications and relate it to the kingdoms of nature. There are of course several meanings to these ancient writings.

I have referred above to the five streams of energy and have related them to the five centres. Let me extend the idea somewhat by pointing out that these five energies are related to the centres or the lotuses to which I referred in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, or to the dynamic point within the lotus, through which the central life of the lotus flows; in the case of the first three energies (of Shamballa, the Hierarchy and Humanity) you have the permanent point of life, light and activity in the lotus; in the case of that potent energy connected with the Jews, you have a very temporary inflow of energy, and in the case of the Forces of Materialism, you have a relatively temporary—though apparently permanent—focal point of reactionary energy.

In connection with the petals of the lotus, you will find a close connection with the forces of the five kingdoms in nature; therefore, to the tabulation which was earlier given I would add the following for your consideration: